Saturday, July 13, 2013

Northern Flicker

The northern flicker is a large woodpecker found across most of North America. They breed through out the US, Alaska and Canada but those in the northern portion of the range migrate south for the winter. They are often found foraging on the ground. They use their beak to dig up insects, particularly ants, and then slurp them up with their long barbed tongue. Northern flickers in the eastern half of North America show yellow under their wings and on the underside of the tail. They are called yellow shafted. Red-shafted northern flickers, like the one above, show red below the wings and tail and are found in the western half. At one time these were two distinct species but now they are considered one, mainly because they hybridize with each other in the middle of the continent.